


The Guardian by the Lake

by Annariel



Series: The Guardian and the Lake [2]
Category: Robin of Sherwood, Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 15:19:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3125006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sapphire and Steel find themselves on a mysterious island in a lake, during the time of Robin Hood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Guardian by the Lake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liadt bunny (Liadt)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liadt/gifts).



> Thanks to fredbassett for the beta.
> 
> Companion piece to the Guardian across the Lake.

"Where are we?" Steel asked.

They stood on a surface of small pebbles. Sapphire knew the details of their composition, history and formation but dismissed the information as irrelevant. She focused her attention instead on the slope of the beach up towards some kind of building.

"The area is simulating the appearance of a small fortified dwelling by a lake," she said.

"Simulating?" 

Sapphire nodded. "Most of what we see is an illusion, though one based on communal expectations. This is the sort of thing humans would expect to see here."

"When? Where?"

"Late 12th century, we are close to Nottinghamshire in England, and yet we are not there."

"Explain," Steel said.

Sapphire felt around the locality, trying to sense the nature of the disconnect from reality. Then she shook her head. "I think we've moved sideways slightly, into a connected but different dimension. The connection is over the water. Humans can cross it from their world into this. "

Steel moved to stand on the shore of the beach. "Can it be stopped?"

Sapphire took a deep breath, feeling into the history of the place. "I don't know. It has been happening for a long time."

Steel turned and scowled. "Then why wasn't it stopped before?"

"Maybe there was no problem before now. It was monitored."

"Do we know what the problem is?"

"It hasn't happened yet."

Steel nodded curtly and strode away from the beach. Sapphire followed him. She converted her clothes into something fitting for the period; the dress of a noble woman in the finest silk. Ahead of her, Steel took his cue from her and his garments changed as well. Sapphire noted that he had chosen to be armed. Steel had no interest in the nuances of culture so something else must have prompted that choice. Sapphire wondered if the prompting was external, she had a sense of intent from somewhere.

The illusion was patchy. Sapphire could see bits of the landscape fading in and out as if into a mist. The details of anything at any distance from themselves were blurred and indistinct. As they approached, the building gradually resolved itself into a two storey stone dwelling, approximately ten meters square.

"What is it?" Steel asked.

"In these times it would be called a castle, though later ages will have more grandiose ideas of the term."

"And those?" Steel pointed towards a host of human figures that were now visible, dotted around the landscape.

Sapphire walked towards the nearest. It was a weathered stone statue but she sensed that there was more to it than that. She touched it lightly on the face. "This was once a man, a Roman legionary. He was dispatched to this benighted, cold, damp island with his regiment." She lifted her hand from the stone and turned to Steel. "Then something caught him and kept him here."

"And this one?" Steel gestured to the next.

Sapphire brushed it with her fingers. "A Viking here on a raid."

"They are all facing towards the castle."

"Yes, something, in the castle perhaps, has trapped them here. It's been doing it for centuries."

"Then why now? Why has this become a problem now?"

A mist swirled briefly around them and, as it cleared, a new figure became discernible. It was a vague and shambling form. Sapphire sensed an illusion but could not penetrate it to determine the thing's true nature.

Steel drew his sword but Sapphire place a hand on his arm, a great sense of unease filling her. She opened her mind and allowed herself to fall into to information coming from the moment. 

As if from far away she heard her own voice intoning words. "Any man who strikes a blow against the guardian will be held forever."

She felt Steel's gaze turn onto her, intent and searching. He was always hungry for the information that her skills provided. "What kind of thing is this guardian?"

"I don't know."

"I must know. Show me Sapphire!"

Sapphire felt his hand on her shoulder and sensed his power being loaned to support hers. She pushed against the mist, trying to force away the illusion. The fog swirled once and then briefly cleared, revealing a mechanical device. Within its shell Sapphire could see cogs and wires which twisted in on themselves into impossible dimensions.

"A robot?" Steel asked, but Sapphire sensed that the question was directed at himself and not at her.

He approached the thing warily. It attacked him with what would have been its fists, but were more like misshapen stubs where its arms ended. Steel deflected the blows easily, but he was careful not to lash out himself and strike the creature.

"I do not recognise the manufacture," he said.

"It is from the other dimension. It is lost here, trapped between the worlds. It has been lost a long time. It ensnares the local people and siphons off their temporal energy in the hopes of escape."

"Once it has the power, will it go?"

"I don't know. Maybe," Sapphire said. "I don't know if it can, or if its actions make any sense."

"Why now? What is it about to do that will cause us to come here now?"

The robot lurched away from them. Mist began to gather around it once more as it built a new illusion. 

Sapphire could see two people in the mist ahead of it. They were a man and a woman, dressed in the clothing of the time. The man raised a sword. Sapphire sensed some internal power within the weapon and recognised the shape of it as something familiar.

"Herne has a hand in this," she said quietly to Steel. The energy signal from the sword was as distinctive as a signature.

The man brought the sword downwards. The moment it connected with the robot the twisted creature melted away with the mist. The man remained behind, frozen in time. Sapphire turned her attention to the woman at his side. Her hair was a mass of red curls caught up in a braid behind her. She had a proud bearing but wore an ill-fitting gown of loose green wool with a leather overdress covering much of it. She reached out a hand to touch the man's face. She seemed out of place to Sapphire, her dress and bearing were all contradictory given Sapphire's own understanding of this time and place.

"He has been frozen in time," Sapphire said to her.

"Frozen in time?" the woman asked.

 _Was that it? Is this what we've come to resolve?_ Steel's question echoed in her mind.

 _I think so, yes_ she replied.

"I am Steel and this is Sapphire," Steel said, ignoring the woman's question. "Who are you?"

"I am Marion of Leaford and this is Robin of Loxley."

Sapphire smiled to herself as the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place. "Robin i'the Hood?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Who is Robin i'the Hood?" Steel asked.

How to compress such a complex concept into a few words? To describe something that was both a man, and a legend in his own time and a legend for future times. Sapphire kept it simple. "A local legend but generally believed to be based on a real person."

The inference was obvious. Robin Hood was significant. Moreover Sapphire sensed that he was drawing power from the creature they knew as Herne the Hunter. Now the guardian of this place had him, it would be able to use all that power for itself and the power derived from changing the course of the legend's history.

"How do I release him?" Marion asked.

 _The guardian must be maintaining an energy field in order to keep him trapped_ Steel said.

_Yes. It won't need to do so for long. The time freeze will quickly become self-sustaining, but for the moment he could be released._

_If we destroy the guardian would he be freed? Will time go back on its course?_

Sapphire considered this. In this time frame, from which the guardian was drawing its images and its ideas, the stories of magic always contained a loophole, a technical point in the wording of any bargain, spell or geas that allowed one or other party to wriggle free.

Sapphire approached Robin's frozen form. She placed a hand on Robin's shoulder and felt down into the energy field that surrounded and held him. The phrase sang in her mind again, 'Any man who strikes a blow against the guardian will be held forever', but this time she felt its meaning as well as hearing the words. She realised this was the key.

"The..." Sapphire paused seeking the right words for the woman to understand. "The spell specifies only that any _man_ who strikes the guardian may be claimed. I suggest you take his sword for yourself. It seems to have a power bound into it."

 _Will it be enough?_ Steel asked.

_I think so. I think if that sword actually manages to hit the guardian, then it will destroy it._

Marion pulled the sword from Robin's hand. The guardian reappeared almost immediately, as if it was pulled towards the possibility of trapping another victim. Steel stepped up to Marion's side.

"You are a man," Marion said to him.

"I do not intend to strike, only to parry," he replied and drew his own sword.

Sapphire looked at the misshapen robot and realised that it was still casting an illusion, if only for the woman. She sought out a way to dispel it and into her mind fell the image of a flaming arrow, plucked from somewhere in Marion's timeline. Sapphire summoned a bow and fired up into the air. The fire from the arrow lit up the area and Marion blinked as if seeing clearly for the first time.

"Let Robin go!" she cried and swung the sword against the guardian.

The fight that followed was short. Although Steel could not strike the creature, he could and did parry, providing an opening which Marion exploited. Sapphire watched with interest as the robot crumbled into its component parts. It had indeed been alone for a long time, everything was patched and crumbling. If Robin and Marion hadn't come it would not have lasted many years more in this liminal place. Sapphire felt the small bubble around them beginning to crumble at the edges. Before too long this small area of dimensional crossover would be gone. 

Robin and Marion were speaking together in low voices. Sapphire became aware that Marion was thanking her. Human rituals needed to be observed after all. Sapphire turned her attention to them, anxious to get the two humans away. She pointed out across the lake. "If you take the boat in that direction you will find your way back to the forest you know."

The humans spoke once more and then headed towards the boat.

"Our regards to Herne," Sapphire called after them. It was just as well to acknowledge the local powers. Herne had been of assistance in the past, and might help them again in future.

"Tell him to be more careful of his protégés in future," Steel said grumpily.

Together they watched the two humans vanish into the mists between the dimensions.

"Will others find their way here?" Steel asked.

Sapphire shook her head. "No, the power in that sword was sufficient to break the link. Only a thin thread remains that will take those two back into history and legend."

Steel smiled with satisfaction. "A job well done then. This weakness is neutralised."

"Yes," Sapphire agreed. "It may leave a legend of a lake and a guardian, but that is all."


End file.
